October 2014

GCWS-Rhodes has come of age; a wonderful lady living here on the island (Amanda Settle) has designed a fabulous website with a new web address, www.gcwsrhodes.org

The same details are still available, however we have a new tab to proudly honour and thank our wonderful supporters who constantly donate either money, send wet or dry food and our amazing volunteers who come out regularly with the vet teams.

Without any of these terrific people, we could not survive. A BIG thank you to you all….

August and September have been extremely hectic months with a great many people and tourists reporting sick, injured, lost and found cats / kittens and as I actually write this I am fostering seven that should be going to forever homes, overseas.

It has been a boom time with at least 12 going overseas, 3 of those older cats which is great news, another 6 kittens requested by local vets for customers ????

(Apparently GCWS have a good track record of providing healthy kittens)

The cages outside undercover are full, along with one bedroom and a bathroom they appear to have taken over the house and the reason for being this way is so that they do not infect one another before they fly. Once they have had their rabies, tri cat, micro chip and passport made ready they are required by law to wait a further 3 weeks before they fly. If one happened to have the start of ring worm or snuffles with the beginning of a cold or worse cat flue, it would be so infectious and if that were to happen it would mean expensive vet bills, extra time in cages and new flight arrangements.

From start to finish depending on how old they are when they arrive, they could be fostered from 6-10 weeks and it is a little heart breaking when they depart, however when I receive photos of them at their new homes it makes me realise losing a bathroom or a bedroom for a month or so, is no big deal. (Luckily I have 2 toilets)

Van so named as she has one blue one green eye as do the Turkish Van cat breed. Found in Lindos, emaciated and unable to eat as she had a sharp bone stuck in her throat ou will note from the photo the stitches from her operation, everything went well and Pixie as she is now known has a wonderful, comfortable life in Germany.

Van rescued in Lindos

Van relaxing

Big Ears lay dying in the middle of a Pefkos street, tiny and weak I bought him home honestly believing he would never survive. It was touch and go for a while, he contracted everything and always had trouble breathing, remaining a smaller than usual kitten. When Rebecca an author who was on a writing retreat here asked if she could adopt him, I was loathe to give him up as I explained he needed and would always require a huge amount of care.

Just look at him now, living the life of luxury in London he needs occasional medical attention, still small but he is as healthy as can be expected.

Big Ears

Big Ears

Draino, a tiny 3 week old kitten bought to me after being cut out from a village water pipe. Covered in ringworm, she again had a 50/50 chance of surviving. She had the lungs of 3mth old and no doubt that’s why they found her, she bonded with another sickly boy Bootsy, he was emaciated and covered in maggots, it turned out to be a positive friendship… Princess as she is now newly called after both of them went to Germany is tone deaf and Bootsy now Gremlin must have been her ears as they were always together, she following him everywhere.

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This particular cat Tom was the only cat wandering around a hotel resort in Kiotari and no matter how many times the staff tried to catch him he evaded them. A lovely German tourist regularly fed him and fell in love; she requested the hotel call me specifically to trap him so that he might return to Germany with her. After catching him, I informed her he was very sick and personally thought he had FIV which was proven correct after a blood test.

It certainly did not deter Maryam, he was made ready and off he went.

This recent photo shows him one year on, the difference is amazing and yes, it definitely is the same cat…. Fantastic what love and good nutritious food can do…

Kiotari Tom Cat

Kiotari Tom Cat now

Finally we have Popeye, found in Lindos by a couple on holiday. Being concerned about his health with both eyes bulging from his face they raced him to the vet where I bumped into them. They asked many questions about adopting the little kitten even though the vet suggested it would be best to put it down, as did 2 others that they asked.

After discussing the situation and talking things over, I suggested we allow the German vet Volker take a look and perhaps operate, this we did and he offered to take the eyes out completely as there was nothing that this kitten would ever be able to see.

Two hours later. The kitten was nestled in a carry case and came home with me. Popeye is very brave, extremely adventurous has put on weight and now living in London with Derek and Ann.

Popeye

Popeye

Everything including medical and travel expenses were paid for by the new owners, nothing financial was offered by GCWS-Rhodes apart from dedicated care and time. This must be made quite clear as GCWS-Rhodes is a neutering charity only, not a rescue or adoption centre.

As reported in above segment, we saw the return of our German vet and friend Volker again on his annual holiday to Rhodes and donated two days of his precious time.

German Vet and Volker

Volker

The area we targeted was a large supermarket between Koskinou and Rhodes where a colony of approximately 18-20 cats lived some with old injuries and others sick and emaciated.

In those 2 days we managed to trap 18 cats there, plus a few more in another area 27 in all, although we did have to euthanise 3 which were in a very bad way, making it bitter sweet.

However that is 27 more that will now live longer and much healthier lives.

Our next newsletter will be December and we would like to make everyone aware, we will be holding an online auction with some amazing offers.

However to keep our costs down, none of the items will be available for postage or freight, they may only be utilised here on the island by regular tourists, those people that live here, our vet team volunteers, basically anyone of our supporters coming for a holiday .